The Thomas J

It's been a year and 10 days since my first service visit to Ray Catena. Last year I had a bunch of warranty work done and an oil change. Total cost $3800. My out of pocket was about $450.
Replaced the Tilt steering column, driver side speed sensor, driver side axle, driver side control arm and ball joint. All covered

375 days and roughly 7,500 miles later my complaints were the following. Center brake light out horrible squeaking coming from the passenger side. Needed passenger side control arm and ball joint. My SA pulled his notes out from last year and said it should have been done last year bu warranty company wouldn't go for it because it had not failed yet. This year they will cover it. Told me I needed brakes soon, again. Told me that last year too but so far not quite there yet. Last year he quoted me $2300 for brakes. This year it's down to $1300.

SO between the service, deductible and the 30 minutes of shop diagnostic the warranty company won't cover it will cost me another $450.

I did notice that every service advisor has on their desk's a sign that indicates that Ray Catena will only accept up to $2100 on a credit card transaction and only up to $2000 on a personal check. Apparently, they get a lot of chargebacks.They will only accept cash or certified check. My SA said it's really only for new customers not established customers.Apparently, the average repair bill at Ray Catena is $2500. Have any of you experienced such a thing at your MD service centers?

DaveW68

Wow!! You must hit a lot of freakin potholes!

Brakes on my S600 are only good for 22-24k miles, which I find very sad. And of course they always need new rotors with the pads. At my last service appointment, they told me that my rear brakes were down to 2-3 mm and needed replacement soon at the tune of $799 + tax. I purchase drilled and slotted after-market brakes rotors (highest quality on Rock Auto) plus ceramic pads for $165 shipped (included new sensor and all hardware) and had my neighbor mechanic friend install them for $40 labor. Hopefully these will last longer than the OEM's. The OEM rotors seem to have soft metal for the rotors or very hard brake pads as they dig into the rotors enough to leave a pretty severe lip on the edge. It's no wonder they can never be resurfaced.

The Thomas J

That's NY for you. I'm pretty good about avoiding them best as I can.
​​​​I plan on putting on a set of Brembo cross drilled and slotted rotors and Power Force brakes. It's a similar setup on my BMW and it works very well.

My SA called me this morning and told me my middle brake light was out. I know I told him I guess he didn't hear me. So the light is $600 plus the $129 diagnostic fee, and, he had to order the light. My service contract covers the light but not the diagnostic fee. I'm like dude, the blub is out. It should not take an hour and $129.00 fee to know it needs to be changed. I'm gonna complain to the service manager Freddy D. And remind him that I know where he lives on Staten Island. LOL.

anyway, so funny story after I left Ray Catena yesterday I went down to Sansone auto mall and leased a new Mazda CX9 for the lady in my life. I've been driving it since I picked it up and I have to say Mazda has come a long way. Beautiful SUV. The 4 cyl turbo engine is quick with no turbo lag. The interior is mint.it looks and feels expensive. I leased the Grand Touring that is pretty much the top of the line feature wise. It has more than my S class, adaptive cruise control, lane change warning and tri-zone climate control. Throw ventilated and massage seats in here and I would be set.

I had looked at VW Atlas which I was so disappointed in and the Mercedes GLE 350 and was ready to pull the trigger on the Benz. But, the lady wanted the Mazda.

DaveW68

All car manufacturers have come a very long way in the last 10 years. But MB has always been at the leading edge of technology, especially the S-class. People are shocked when I tell them that my S600 is over 11 years old, especially for all of the features that are in it that took several more years before other manufacturers were offering them. The only items that other manufacturers are offering now that my S doesn't have are: full surround reverse cameras, blind spot warning, lane change assist, USB ports, and BT streaming. While all of those items would be nice to have, none of them are necessary. And MB was offering all of those newer technologies, except BT streaming before almost all other manufacturers had them.

When I had my car in for service last week, they gave me a GLS450 as a loaner. What an absolutely amazing SUV it was. It seemed even quieter than my S600, drove extremely smooth (not at all like an SUV), and was extremely comfortable. Not to mention great power delivery out of the base TT V6. I'd love to give the GLS550 or 63 a test run some day.

The Thomas J

Honestly, the Mazda has too much. I do like the adaptive cruise control. I know many of the options my Mada were options on the S class. Are they needed? for the most part no. I was reading the owners manual of the Mada and apparently is can steer itself under certain circumstances and brake to a complete stop and start again in traffic. Now I don't need that but I'm going to enjoy playing around with it. The only thing I wanted in my S and did not get was the rear seat package. I really enjoy everyone being able to set their own climate control accordingly so they can leave me alone. Maybe in the next one.

I forgot to mention that I finally sat in the new E class. At first, I thought it was a C class. It seemed very tight on the inside, especially the leg room. I could just be spoiled from the S but I recall there being more space in the w211 and w212. The dash is so nice. The interior is very nice overall. it had a sticker of $65 grand. Going back to the Mazda for a moment. I looked at the VW Atlas which I was so sure I was going to lease and when we test drove it we were horribly disappointed. It looked and felt cheap on the inside. If you are going for the $31,000 version it's ok. But once you option it out and it becomes a $48,000 truck it's obvious how bad it looks. It is HUGE. I think it was a little too big for what we needed. The Mazda may well be a little smaller than we need, It's a tad bigger than the 4Runner it replaces, but it has a third row and it handles like a small car. It's very sporty. What really sold me was the quality of the interior. Whether you vet the $29,000 version or the Signature series at $45,000 yiu get the same great looking, great feel to the touch interior. The dash panels are almost swede like. The brushed aluminum or Japanese rosewood looks great and it has these black mirror-like surfaces as well. The switches are metal like in the S class. The ones that don't have that nice soft touch material. It's a really nice SUV. Not an S class, but, has S class like features.

BTW, $600 for a center brake light on the S is just stupid.

1bad540

center brake light went out on my s class last year and turned out to be brake switch? was covered under my cpo warty!..... speaking of features, Just traded my 2010 for a cpo 2015.... and although I agree alot of the features are not necessary they are all pretty awesome to have. Ill post up a review of my thoughts of the 2 cars.

DaveW68

If they would have carried over the flared wheel arches and put in some masculine looking tail lights in the W222, I'd have already been all over it.

1bad540

Yea im a big fan of the flared wheel arches.

The Thomas J

Me too.

So am I.

S430AMG

I'm not sure we would own 2 SClasses if we didn't work on these cars ourselves.....seriously.